OPEN PLATFORM_8 - 08 November 2017 - Algomech Festival Opening Night

RAP(s) - Random Access Performances - OPEN PLATFORM_8
AlgoMech 2017, Access Space Labs, Sheffield, UK

Wednesday, 08 November 2017, 6-8pm

Free but booking essential.

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s) - TwT. returns as part of Algomech 2017 - Sheffield's Festival of Algorithmic and Mechanical Movement! Algomech Festival seeks to examine the complex relationship between technology, art and performance. The first edition in 2016 celebrated the resurgence of making in performance, this year we are contemplating an underlying theme of unmaking.

AlgoMech 2017 takes place in various locations around Sheffield, UK, from 08-12 November 2017. The festival features concerts, talks, workshops, installations and an algorithmic rave. Full programme here. 

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s) - TwT. is a micro event series that explores the digital with physical means by asking performers to present digital work without using anything digital. 

Five performers take up the challenge of re-thinking the digital with free interpretations that are 1 to 10 minutes in duration, about or related to digital technology and happening on some sort of platform.

'Technology without Technology' (TwT) performances are a creative, playfully serious strategy to negotiate the 'unknowable' of digital technology and the constant information overload in our contemporary world.

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s) - TwT. originated at Access space in 2012 and is curated by Susanne Palzer.

OPEN PLATFORM_8 presenters/performers:

Dreams of a sleeping apple by Eddy Dreadnought
An immersive dream micro-workshop. Eddy will provide conditions and questions to enable the participants to explore what their computers dream about when in sleep mode.

Pattern Recognition by Rachael Hand
A light-hearted parlour game, evoking a digital non-native's struggles with an increasingly digital world. Struggles to grasp meaning and then retain it in memory will be enacted by volunteers from the audience. The winner will be the person with the most cards when the time is up.

A Typewriter Piece by Ryoko Akama
"I perform with a typewriter who performs with me who will make a performance by the typewriter who will instruct us all.”

howToNotDie(wT) by Sean Cotterill
"howToNotDie(wT) is a performance reflecting upon fantasies of technological disconnection in the context of a body with a chronic health condition, physically reliant on proprietary digital technologies for basic survival. Through performance I will discuss the technologies of my body and my personal processes of making/unmaking for survival, my deeply uncomfortable relationships with digital capitalism, and the ableist nature of contemporary 'disconnection' narratives."

Self Inverter by xname
A painting composes itself live, while the platform becomes a paradigm of cyclic instructions, loops, electronic impulses and the arcane symbology of Inverters. A speculative work addressing formal qualities of logic symbolism and their potential in investigating and rediscovering behaviour and the everyday, confronting the meaning of life with the mechanics of electronics.
The self, liberated, is finally projected onto the realm of the fantastic.

More information about OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s)-TwT. and previous events here.

The Facebook event is here.

Like us on Facebook or send us a tweet!

@Open_Platform  @algomech  @AccessSpace  

Access Space Labs

14-16 Fitzalan Spuare

Sheffield

S1 2AZ

OPEN PLATFORM_4 06 December 2013 - Performances

RAP(s)- Random Access Performance(s) - TwT.codemehappy

Alex McLean/Susanne Palzer - Binary Transmission

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Alex McLean/Susanne Palzer

Binary Transmission

Timelapse Still: Susanne Palzer

OPEN PLATFORM_4 opens with a collaborative experiment in live coding without electricity. For the duration of 10 minutes Alex McLean transcodes every step of my binary on/off movements into a knit or pearl and produces a piece of fabric which represents the live performance. To allow for the 'human transcoding' by knitting I perform a slowed down version of a performance piece in which I step on and off a platform. 

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Alex McLean/Susanne Palzer

Binary Transmission

HDV Still: John X. Moseley/Susanne Palzer

The collaboration brings together elements of Alex' ongoing research into 'the binding of analogue and digital forms in the context of computer programming' and my current practice of investigating into the fusion of digital technology and physical performance. On/Off is a series of performances which explore the intersection between performance and technology by deconstruction.

Some thoughts on Alex McLean's 'knitting metaphor' can be found here.






Eddy Dreadnought - Motherboard

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Eddy Dreadnought

Motherboard

Timelapse Still: Susanne Palzer

Next on the platform is Eddy Dreadnought presenting a spoken piece. Apparently drawing on his "complete lack of knowledge" of how computers work he reads us an enlightening story about silicon. 'Motherboard' follows on from 'Embryonic Thought' which he performed at Manchester Science Festival in November.

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Eddy Dreadnought

Motherboard

HDV Still: Susanne Palzer

Here is an excerpt from 'Motherboard':

"... First message: 'the silicon words become strange, scarce even one dimension flat. Taut as any rim-shot, unimaginably compressed, forever saved as the last sedimentary gills of fossils.'

Message two: 'silicon language is spelled in letters, but also numbers and algebra, punctuation symbols and symbols from keyboards like percentiles and money, and symbols from playing cards and from any alphabet, Arabic, Armenian, Cyrillic, Greek. And it has words for breathing, and pauses and stress, and the inscrutable intonations of Mandarin. And sometimes passages of volatile bits, its cells of zero and one, hoop and stick, all clicking like the consonants of Africa. And sometimes silicon language is in colour, and sometimes hovers over the screen as spatial as the helter-skelter of DNA'.

Message three: 'silicon cannot understand the kaleidoscopic ambiguity of our mother tongue, so talks in obsessively precise circles to avoid mistakes and shut out background. and its words are imperative because silicon has no common sense. It is at once retarded and advanced, concrete and mercurial. And unable to read eyes or bodies.'

The final message: 'the best silicon languages, though stripped of metaphor, can put into words inexpressible ideas, to become poetry. Recursively rhythmic like music or perseverating like Gertrude Stein. Esoteric languages whose vocabulary is the white space between words, or the movement between twenty modernist colours. or squares of cells like Vermeer chequerboard tiles.' ..."  

Kate Sicchio/Susanne Palzer - Asynchronous Transmission 
   

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Kate Sicchio/Susanne Palzer

Asynchronous Transmission

Timelapse Still: Susanne Palzer

Shortly after Eddy's performance a strange packet arrives and completes an asynchronous transmission from New York! Over the duration of four weeks, and based on a digital transmission that uses 'packet switching', Kate Sicchio sent several 'coded packets' by post from across the Atlantic to different recipients in Sheffield. All have brought their 'packets' with them to OPEN PLATFORM_4. Now a 'terminal' has to be 'unzipped' and placed on the platform. The 'packets' are being 'switched' between audience members, then assembled together in the correct order and finally 'presented at the terminal'. Contained within the 'packets' are cards with binary code on one side and a corresponding letter on the other. Once all cards are in place on the 'receiving terminal' the message is revealed: "Hello World"!

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Kate Sicchio/Susanne Palzer

Asynchronous Transmission

Timelapse Still: Susanne Palzer

We are currently developing OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s)-TwT. into a mobile platform and our intention is to build a digital network with physical means. Asynchronous Transmission was conceived and devised in dialogue with choreographer Kate Sicchio exploring the possibilities for remote performances without live transmission.

A brief technical description of 'asynchronous transmission' can be found here.








Brian G. Gilson - if-then 

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Brian G. Gilson

if-then

Timelapse Still: Susanne Palzer

Straying slightly from his usual practice, which involves performance and the use of Processing and Csound, Brian G. Gilson performs a poem for his first appearance at OPEN PLATFORM: 'if-then' is an entertaining and clever simulation of a sonnet written using a two state cellular automaton. 












Jake Harries - Living the Spam I 

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Jake Harries

Living the Spam I

Timelapse Still: Susanne Palzer

With tinsel, santa hat, western union forms and a guitar Jake Harries brings festive spirit to OPEN PLATFORM_4. An expert in 'living the spam' he updates us on his latest romantic adventures and closes the event sharing his pre-Christmas joy!














OPEN PLATFORM_5  will take place on Friday, 04 April 2014 at Access Space. OPEN PLATFORM is an ongoing open call. If you are interested in taking part/performing at a future event please email Susanne or Jake.

OPEN PLATFORM_4/RAP(s) - TwT.codemehappy - Fri, 06 Dec 2013

RAP(s) - Random Access Performances - TwT.codemehappy 

Friday, 06 December 2013, 6-8pm at Access Space

We are worried. We want to have fun. We no longer want to queue outside over night for the latest gadget. We, the transitional generation, are forever trapped in a loop between the analogue and digital! In a world in which computational processes seem to run every aspect of our lives, we ask you:

How about switching off and going on?

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s) - TwT. is a micro event that explores the digital with physical means by asking performers to present digital work without using anything digital. In a small, intimate space performers take up the challenge of re-thinking the digital with free interpretations that are 1 to 10 minutes in duration, about or related to digital technology and happening on some sort of platform. 

'Technology without Technology' (TwT) performances are a creative, playful strategy to negotiate the 'unknowable' of digital technology and the constant information overload in our contemporary world. OPEN PLATFORM_4/RAP(s) - TwT.codemehappy will explore ideas around code and will feature performances by  

Eddy Dreadnought

Brian G Gilson

Jake Harries

Alex McLean 

Susanne Palzer

Kate Sicchio

RAP(s) - Random Access Performances: OPEN PLATFORM_4/RAP(s) - TwT.codemehappy will take place in the Access Space Foyer.

For further information please email: 

Susanne or Jake 

Access Space

Unit 1, AVEC Building

3-7 Sidney Street

Sheffield

S1 5RG

More information about OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s)-TwT. and previous events here.

The Facebook event is here.

Like us on Facebook or send us a tweet!

@Open_Platform_   @AccessSpace 

OPEN PLATFORM_1 27 July 2012 at Access Space - The Performances

RAP(s)- Random Access Performance(s) - Technology without Technology

Susanne Palzer - Doodle Doot Doot-Doot Doodle Do Doodoo/Taschenrechner

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Susanne Palzer/
Doodle Doot Doot-Doot Doodle Do Doodoo
HDV Still: Richard Bolam/Susanne Palzer

In the (on) space I open the closing event of RAM/RAR/RAA+RAP(s) at Access Space with a tribute to digital pioneers Kraftwerk - before offering the platform to other performers. With a cardboard calculator I perform a transcript of digital sounds from the 1991 ('The Mix') dance version of 'Taschenrechner' in German.

Pocket calculator made in the Refab Space, with thanks to John X. Moseley.  

Sunshine Gray - Body Sounds

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Sunshine Gray/
Body Sounds
DV Still: Susanne Palzer

Next Sunshine Gray takes us back to a pre-digital age and fittingly back into the Media Lab ("pre-RAM/RAR/RAA+RAP(s)"). We are asked to create a soundscape, performing rain, thunder and lightning using only natural acoustics, i.e. body and voice.

Bringing RAM/RAR/RAA+RAP(s) full circle we move into the (off) space of the project, finally turning the former 'vocal booth' in the foyer back into a performance space.

Eddy Dreadnought - Spectre of a Mass Cyberattack

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP:
Eddy Dreadnought/Spectre of a
Mass Cyberattack
Photo: Susanne Palzer

A Digital Futurist's live stream is fragmented and interrupted by endless buffering ...

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Eddy Dreadnought/
Spectre of a Mass Cyberattack
Timelapse Still: courtesy Richard Bolam

... and eventually we are brutally attacked by viruses, worms and trojan horses.

John X. Moseley

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: John X. Moseley
HDV Still: Richard Bolam/Susanne Palzer

John X. Moseley talks about his (non) relationship with computers, the (non) flow of data, boxes, body and mind, amplifiers, a-synchronicity, computers as friends, extreme repair men, the Dark Side, special friends, making things and more.

Richard Bolam - High Dynamic Range Photography

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP:Richard Bolam/High
Dynamic Range Photography
Photo: Susanne Palzer

Richard Bolam asks us to be very still and to not move while he creates a HDR photograph of the audience without a camera or a computer. Including rendering difficulties and computer crashes he takes us through the whole process of exposures, saving and lining up of exposures using 'special software' to compose the HDR image.

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Richard Bolam/High
Dynamic Range Photography
Timelapse Still: courtesy Richard Bolam

We are being photographed - one of Richard's 'over exposures' captured on timelapse.

Liz Hall - Edit

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Liz Hall/Edit
Timelapse Still: courtesy Richard Bolam

Liz Hall performs a poem about video editing inspired by her work as a film maker. Making nature documentaries she asks if you can really contain and tame nature in the digital format. What does happen when you compress the raw magnificent material into digital information and force it onto a timeline? 

James Price - Stream

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: James Price
/Stream
Photo: Susanne Palzer

"... ... save the best 'til last ... stuff I'm just coming up with ... I'm trying not to pause ... technology ... I saw everything ... love in the future ... technology isn't just computers ... I compared computers to fire ... the tech wizards of the world today  ... are like gods and goddesses ... people fetishise things ... it is just a tool ... you can't do performance without technology ... I'm standing on a platform that has been made in clothes that have been made ... we have developed through technology we are made to survive with technology ... the computer is only an extension of this idea ... ... we don't think about stuff any near enough ... ..."

Unfortunately Jake Harries was unable to perform this time.

All performances took place on a wooden platform (65cmx95cm) and were timed to 10 minutes.

We are planning OPEN PLATFORM_2 for November 2012. If you are interested in taking part/performing please email Susanne Palzer.